[DotGNU]auctions: a flawed market? (was Re: Professional online tech support for GNU/Linux?)

[S11001001]

James Michael DuPont wrote:
> Sounds good.
> Here are my 2 € cents : 

ISO-8859-15 is cool. Unicode is still cooler though ;)

> > * how is price determined?
>
> Via an ebay bidding system, people put what they will pay, and
> the developers sell thier time on a market system.

On a mildly related note, I read an interesting article in a recent _The 
Economist_ called "Bidding adieu?" It opined that auctions had proven 
not to be efficient markets.

It is not free, but I will quote:

Chalk it up to the winner's curse: it is sometimes the most optimistic, 
and least well informed, bidder who wins at auction...Thus more bidders 
(ie, more demand) can actually lead to lower prices, since each bidder 
fears that a larger number of competitors might know more than he 
does...An increase in the supply may actually bring higher prices, as 
bidders feel less worried about the winner's curse.

--
Stephen Compall
DotGNU `Contributor' -- http://www.dotgnu.org

It read like a socialist polemic, but I saw something different. I
saw a business plan in disguise.
        -- Michael Tiemann, co-founder of Cygnus Support, on the
        GNU Manifesto